Jill L. Ferguson PO Box XXX Renton, WA 98056 650.999.9999 jill@jillferguson.com
Reframing Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines
Evidence from Practice
Book Proposal Table of Contents
Overview 3
Marketing Analysis 4
Competitive Analysis 5
Author Information 7
Section by Section Outline 10
Sample Sections/Chapters 16
Overview
Reframing Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines: Evidence from Practice is the second book in a series by J. Joseph Hoey IV and Jill L. Ferguson to examine assess- ment practices in Creative Disciplines. The first book, Assessment in Creative Disciplines: Quantifying and Qualifying the Aesthetic (Common Ground, May 2014), explores creativity and its assessment using easy-to-grasp concepts, concrete examples, and case studies to form a blueprint that the reader can use to assess endeavors in music, art, and design on both an individual basis and as a collective (course, cohort, department, program, etc.) Reframing Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines: Evidence from Practice covers assessment and quality assurance on the individual student level to mapping course level learning outcomes to program learn- ing outcomes (and to institutional learning outcomes in many cases) to promising and well-established good principles of practice in creative disciplines. The book follows the links between quality assurance and teaching and learning; delves into good prac- tices and then provides a myriad of examples of those practices through case studies in 17 creative disciplines. Finally, Reframing Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines:
Evidence from Practice places quality assurance within the institutional context by exploring requirements of both national and regional accrediting bodies, and then within the international context by looking at the recognition of competencies.
This book grew out of the research, writings, and presentations of the authors J. Joseph Hoey IV, Executive Vice President at Ashford University and Bridgepoint Education and former Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness at Savannah College of Art and Design, and Jill L. Ferguson, higher education consultant, for- mer Assessment Coordinator and Chair of General Education at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, lecturer in the School of Business at Notre Dame de Namur University, and artist.
Marketing Analysis
Reframing Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines: Evidence from Practice’s intended audience is faculty, assessment coordinators, administration, graduate edu- cation arts students, and anyone else interested in the evaluation of creative works.
We think a direct campaign (e-mail or flyer-based) to deans, faculty, and assessment coordinators of arts programs would be one way to market this book, in addition to the usual notices to college and university bookstores and libraries and to graduate education programs to suggest adoption of the book as a textbook.
The authors of Reframing Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines: Evidence from Practice have been laying the groundwork for marketing the book by sending proposals to speak at, and getting acceptances to speak at, assessment confer- ences in the United States and Europe. David Mills Chase and Joseph spoke on arts assessment at the 2014 WASC Annual Resource Conference in San Diego, California.
Joseph presented in June 2014 at the AALHE conference in New Mexico. Jill spoke at ATINER’s 4th Annual Assessment in Performing and Visual Arts Conference in Athens, Greece, in June 2013 and at the annual conference sponsored by LiveText in Chicago also in July 2013. Jill and Joseph presented at the Hawaii International Arts and Humanities Conference in Honolulu in January 2014 and at the Arts in Society Conference in Rome in June 2014. Jill also presented at the Higher Education Teaching and Learning Conference in Anchorage in late May 2014. Joseph pre- sented at the LiveText regional workshop in San Diego in November 2013. The authors spoke collectively at Trudy Banta’s Assessment Institute in October 2013, and Joseph ran another workshop at the Assessment Institute in October 2014. All of these speaking engagements created buzz and anticipation for their first book together and for the publication of Reframing Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines: Evidence from Practice. The authors will continue the publicity and electronic campaigns through targeted social media, and through their substantial network of academic colleagues after the book’s release date. They will feature the book on their website www.assessmentincreativedisciplines.com and advertise for it with their consultancy projects.
Competitive Analysis
While dozens of books about assessment have been written and published over the last two decades, only a few of these books have dealt with assessing students and with quality assurance in creative academic disciplines, and many of them are very discipline specific or look at the assessment of creativity through one distinct lens (such as psychology). In addition to their first book, the following books, or parts of these books, could be considered competitors with Reframing Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines: Evidence from Practice:
1. Assessment in Practice: Putting Principles to Work on College Campuses by Trudy W. Banta and Associates, Jon P. Lund, Karen E. Black, and Francis W.
Oblander (published in 1995 by Jossey-Bass) became an instantly indispensible primer on the best assessment methods in the United States upon its publication
in late 1995, and this book of case studies (86 of which are reported in their entirety) is still one of the best books on assessment almost two decades later.
The tome covers all types of assessment from individual and classroom to pro- gram or department levels to institutional assessment and many, many disci- plines (math, foreign language, technology, etc.) have examples.
2. Assessing 21st Century Skills: A Guide to Evaluating Mastery and Authentic Learning by Laura M. Greenstein (published by Corwin in July 2012) includes one chapter (nine pages that are part of Chapter 5) on assessing creativity. Also, one line on the rubric on page 198 covers creativity. Greenstein includes creativity as one of the 21st-century intellectual skills that are part of authentic learning.
3. Part of the Essentials of Psychological Assessment series, Essentials of Creativity Assessment, by psychologists James C. Kaufman, Jonathan A. Plucker, and John Baer (published by Wiley in August 2008) covers the self-assessment of creativity and assessment by others, including teachers, peers, and parents. The book focuses on standardized testing measurements and other psychological tools.
4. Also published in 2008, Assessment in Music Education: Integrating Curriculum, Theory, and Practice, edited by Timothy S. Brophy (GIA Publications), is a com- pilation of 27 papers that were presented at the 2007 symposium of the Florida Symposium on Assessment in Music Education. The primary focus of the papers is assessments for K-12 music education, but some of the ideas are applicable for higher education.
5. The Problem of Assessment in Art and Design by Trevor Rayment (published by Intellect Books in 2007) presents both historical and philosophical perspec- tives of assessment of artistic endeavors. This book is a collection of chapters written by arts and education experts.
6. Assessment in Art Education by Donna Kay Beattle (published by Davis in 1997) is a short book that is part of the “Art Education in Practice Series.”
This book covers the assessment of arts portfolios, journals, and perfor- mances. It also covers scoring and judging strategies.
Author Information
Dr. J. Joseph Hoey, IV serves as Vice President for Accreditation Relations and Policy at Bridgepoint Education. Dr. Hoey’s background includes development of an insti- tutional effectiveness function at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) from 2006–2010. In 2009, he developed and presented MUSE (Measuring Unique
Studies Effectively) at SCAD, the first conference of its kind in the United States on assessment in art and design. Dr. Hoey spent eight years as the founding director of the Office of Assessment at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a prior five years in University Planning and Analysis at NC State University, and seven years in the North Carolina Community College System. His published research encompasses engineer- ing program assessment, graduate program assessment, academic program review, building trust in assessment processes, alumni and employer feedback, validating student engagement research, community college transfer, and evaluation of online academic programs.
Dr. Hoey is past president of the Southern Association for Institutional Research, past board member at large for the Association for Institutional Research, and is both a frequent speaker and presenter on assessment, evaluation, and accreditation issues.
Prior to his career in higher education administration, Dr. Hoey enjoyed a sat- isfying first career in classical guitar performance. He holds a Master of Music in Guitar Performance from the Florida State University, where he studied under Bruce Holzman, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied under Celin and Pepe Romero. He studied at the Hochschule der Kuenste in Berlin under Carlo Domeniconi and privately with Gilbert Biberian in London. Dr. Hoey has taught studio classical guitar at the University of Reading (UK) and at Barton College. His performance career includes four years as a full-time resident artist in the Visiting Artist Program in North Carolina, as well as stints on the Touring Artist Roster for both North Carolina and South Carolina. Discography includes a CD for Liscio Recordings with fellow guitarist Brian Morris as Les Deux Amis. He is one of the co-authors of Assessment in Creative Disciplines: Quantifying and Qualifying the Aesthetic (Common Ground, 2014) and of the chapter “Examining Inquiry-Based Education in Creative Disciplines Through Assessment” in the book Inquiry-Based Learning for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (Emerald Publishing, 2014).
Jill L. Ferguson is the author or co-author of four published books, Sometimes Art Can’t Save You (In Your Face Ink, 2005); Raise Rules for Women: How to Make More Money at Work (In Your Face Ink, 2007); WOMEN Are Changing the Corporate Landscape: Rules for Cultivating Leadership Excellence (WOMEN Unlimited, 2008); Assessment in Creative Disciplines: Quantifying and Qualifying the Aesthetic (Common Ground, 2014); and of the chapter “Extending Inquiry- Based Education in Creative Disciplines Through Assessment” in the book Inquiry-Based Learning for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (Emerald
Publishing, 2014), and of hundreds of published articles, essays, and poems.
She is a frequent presenter and keynote speaker on topics including assessment and accreditation. Ms. Ferguson currently works as a business and higher edu- cational consultant, artist, writer, and editor; she was most recently chief of staff at the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission of Senior Colleges and Universities. Previously, she spent 12 academic years as a Professor of English, Writing, And Communications; department chair of General Education; and assessment coordinator at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She also spent over a decade teaching in the School of Business and Management at Notre Dame de Namur University.
As an undergraduate and after, Ms. Ferguson studied printmaking, painting, jewelry making, and pottery. Her paintings have been for sale in an art gallery in Pennsylvania and in stores in California, Japan, and online.
Section by Section Outline
This book will be broken into three major sections, in addition to seven traditional chapters, with section two being the longest because it will have case studies for 17 distinct disciplines.
Section I: Reframing Quality Assurance
This section provides the background for why the book was written, covers approaches to quality assurance, explores the links between quality assurance and teaching and learning, delves deep into cognitive and affective learning in creative disciplines, and finishes with good principles of practice.
Chapter 1: Reframing Quality Assurance in the Creative Disciplines
This chapter introduces key concepts explored throughout the book, such as why assessment in the arts is different from other disciplines, advances in assessment practice that now permit authentic, valid, and reliable assessment in the arts and at scale, the multiple ways in which technology may be leveraged for assessment in the arts, the tremendous role of metacognition and self-reflection as cornerstones of artistic development, and the need to assess the formation of those critical faculties in students. The chapter continues with a broad overview of the book, describing in general each section.
Chapter 2: Quality Assurance and the Link to Teaching and Learning
In assessing learning in the creative and performing arts, one size definitely does not fit all. Different kinds of tasks call for different learning strategies, and different learning strategies call for different pedagogical approaches. Students encounter a variety of academic subjects and ways of knowing as they progress through their degree programs. This chapter will explore the connection of assessment strategy to the design and intentionality of the curriculum within programs of study in the arts, and the connection of arts to curricula and assessment across disciplines, including those commonly found in general education programs.
Over the past 25 years, psychologists have developed a deep understanding of the role of deliberate practice in developing expert performance capabilities.
The findings both reinforce what many in arts education already know about developing artistic mastery and challenge conventional ideas about teaching and learning. This chapter reviews the expert performance and deliberate practice theoretical frameworks and suggests how they can be used in assessing learning in the arts.
Chapter 3: Quality Assurance in Online Creative Programs
Chapter 3 takes up quality assurance in the rapidly expanding field of online learning as it is being applied to creative disciplines, looking at changes to teaching practice, incorporation of universal design principles to facilitate online learning in the arts, new opportunities for students to create works online, and how those works might be assessed.
Chapter 4: Cognitive and Affective Learning in Creative Disciplines
This chapter delves into the triumvirate of learning domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor, and provides examples of how each domain is critical to effective assessment of learning in the arts.
Chapter 5: Good Principles of Practice in Quality Assurance for the Creative Disciplines
This chapter provides a set of principles and a model of what might constitute good practice in assessment and quality assurance within the creative disciplines. The
chapter features a discussion of each aspect of what we might consider good practice and provides examples.
Section II: Case Studies: Evidence from Practice
Chapters 6–13: Quality Assurance in the Context of Creative Disciplines
The case studies presented in these chapters are broken into eight broad discipli- nary categories (performing arts; fine art; art history and art therapy; film, video, and recording arts; architecture and interior design; industrial/product design; fash- ion design, illustration, accessory design, textile and fiber, jewelry, costume design;
digital and graphic design) categories and are cross-referenced so the reader can easily and readily determine which case studies feature using results for continuous improvement, a triangulation of assessment methods, transparency in communica- tion, leverage information technology, feature principles of learner feedback, and/or well-defined student learning outcomes.
Section III: Setting Quality Assurance in the Creative Disciplines in Context
Chapter 14: Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines in the Institutional Context This chapter reviews the requirements of the regional accreditors in the United States and specialized accreditors in creative disciplines relative to assessment and quality assurance in student learning—including the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), and the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD).
Chapter 15: Quality Assurance in Creative Disciplines in the International Context The chapter explores quality assurance in creative disciplines in the international con- text, covering applicable standards, and exploring joint recognition of competencies in the arts across geographical and political boundaries. We include information about the tuning process, the Australian Quality Framework for the Arts, and ramifications of the Lumina Foundation Degree Qualification Profile for assessment of the arts in the United States.
VI Sample Sections/Chapters
Book Introduction
Change your opinions, keep to your principles;
change your leaves, keep intact your roots.
—Victor Hugo At various points in our lives, change is thrust upon us. It is how we respond posi- tively or negatively that determines the outcomes. As a seasoned classical guitarist and studio instructor, in 1990 I was faced with a daunting prospect: the need to assess student learning outcomes not just individually as I had always done, but across students, based on a common set of competencies. I believed strongly in the primacy of frequent, formative assessment between student and expert instructor as the cornerstone of individual musical instruction, and still do. At that point in the development of national student learning outcomes assessment practice, most of the assessment methods being put forward centered on standardized exams and indirect methods such as student surveys—hardly suitable for assessment of student learning in music! As a natural first instinct, I began looking around for examples of good assessment practice in other institution—back then, there was a dearth of good examples available from other schools. Eventually I got wind of the American Association of Higher Education’s (AAHE) annual assessment forum, and from attend- ing those conferences as well as meetings of the South Carolina Higher Education Assessment (SCHEA) network, I began to gather examples of assessment in disci- plines besides music. In the intervening decades, a solid body of assessment theory and practice has been developed that works for most disciplines—but again, it is surprising and disappointing that creative disciplines such as music, architecture, fashion design, and film have been largely neglected in the assessment literature, and the first attempt of any consequence to bring together assessment of creative disci- plines in an interactive conference did not take place until the 2009 MUSE (Measuring Unique Studies Effectively) conference at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia.
Since the creation of our first mutual, comprehensive work on assessment in the creative disciplines (Assessment in Creative Disciplines: Quantifying and Qualifying the Aesthetic, published by Common Ground in 2014), my co-authors and I have received numerous requests for a work that brings together promising assessment practices across the creative disciplines. This current work is a direct consequence of those